Smile
by Shelbey
Summary: Our Time is Here, 4 of 18. There was very little that Tess could do when it came to him. There was something about his distance, the rarity of his smile. And she wanted to find out what made him tick. Nate/Tess


**Summary: **There was very little that Tess could do when it came to him. There was something about his distance, the rarity of his smile. And she wanted to find out what made him tick. Nate/Tess

Tess watched Caitlyn and Mitchie over her shoulder as she walked away. They hated her, she knew. But she really didn't give them any other choice in the matter. She had treated them both terribly, and though she wanted to repent, she didn't think she'd get the chance to.

She sighed and watched the campers meet up with their parents in the crowd. Envious of them, she didn't have the heart to go find her mother. She came… but she didn't watch. T.J. Tyler was just on the phone during her time on the stage, and it stung. "No one really cared about my performance," she said softly, resting her head against her knees and letting her blond hair make a curtain around her face.

"I did." Tess nearly jumped and she glanced up to where she saw Nate of Connect Three watching her intently, his guitar still strapped around him from the Jam Session. "If that means anything to mean girl of Camp Rock, Tess Tyler, that is." For a moment she was silent, but she wiped her eyes and nodded.

"Of course it does," she sniffed, pushing her hair behind her ear. "I mean, you're Nate from Connect Three. If it didn't mean anything I would be crazy." His serious expression had yet to change, and Tess's blue eyes were locked on his brown ones.

He nodded vaguely. "Are you all right?"

She blinked. "What do you mean?"

Nate shrugged and gave her a concerned expression. "You almost fell off the stage, you were so distracted by something. What happened? From what I've seen, you much more focused than that."

Tess frowned indignantly. "I'm always focused!" He cocked an eyebrow at her and she closed her mouth, staring at the ground. He wasn't like everyone else… he could see right through her games. "Why are you so worried about it, anyway?"

Nate shook his head. "I don't know. You would think I'd have more important things to do than this…" They watched each other closely in silence, the minutes ticking by, but to Tess they seemed like hours, days of time she stared at the guitarist.

"Then why don't you go do them?" she responded bitingly, standing up from the ground and giving him a dirty look. "I can see that you're a busy man." Tess turned on heel and began to stalk away, tears beginning to form in her eyes. First she loses Shane to Mitchie, and then her mother stops watching her sing partway through, and then Nate thought she was worthless. What else could go wrong?

"Tess. I'd rather talk to you." She paused mid-step and heard him walking towards her. Slowly, she turned around to look at him, surprised.

"Why?" she asked bluntly. "If it's to tell me I'm not as great as I think I am, don't worry about it. Mitchie already showed me up a million times. She won Shane, and I lost." He furrowed his brow and removed his guitar from around himself, leaning it against the wall.

He said, "Shane isn't a prize to be won, Tess. He chose Mitchie, she didn't win him."

"But I wanted him," she cried. "We would have been perfect together!"

"Two stars are brighter than one," he quoted softly, and she frowned, embarrassed and hurt, as she turned away from him again. "Tess." She glanced up and saw something on his face that she hadn't seen before. He was smiling at her, the corners of his mouth pulled up on his youthful face as he regarded her. "There's more to life than the narrow view you're taking on it. And there's more people to love than just Shane Gray. Those who love you too."

She watched him with a bemused expression as he walked away, his words enigmatic. They didn't make sense to her at all. What did he mean? She tugged on the sleeve of her blue shirt as she reran all the details of their conversation through her head. Tess didn't want to be conceited, she didn't want to get her hopes up either.

But to her… no. She couldn't even think it to be true. Tess shook her head and stepped out of the wing of the stage to go into the audience, most of the people gone. "Tess?" She glanced up and saw her mother standing by the door, looking worried. "There you are. I was looking all over for you."

She said softly, "If you had been looking at me half an hour ago mom, I would have appreciated it a little bit more."

"I'm sorry, sweetie," she sighed, putting a hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Tess pulled her shoulder away. "No you're not," she whispered, running away from the famous singer and out of the concert hall.

--

It wasn't worth it to her. Not at all.

She sighed as she stared out at the lake, the sun kissing her beautiful blond hair as it lowered itself in the sky. It was almost time to leave Camp Rock for the summer, and she didn't know if she could take it. Next year seemed so far away, and it wasn't very appealing.

She had lost her friends. And for what? To hurt a girl that hadn't done anything to her in the first place?

Ridiculous.

For a moment she stared at the sky, reflecting on everything that had happened this year. Then she stood up to go back to her cabin to pack her bags to leave camp for this summer. As much as she didn't want to do it, it needed to be done. She turned around quickly and, unexpectedly, into someone's embrace. Tess was shocked into silence, the owner of the arms holding her too close for her to see the face. "You looked like you needed a hug," the person said in amusement.

"Nate?" she breathed, pushing away from him ever so slightly to see his face.

Her stomach flip flopped, and she felt a shock run down her spine, giving her goosebumps. He was smiling again. That beautiful, endearing, perfect smile that made her feel like everything was all right with the world. That it didn't matter no one liked her, that Shane had picked Mitchie, that her mother didn't pay attention during Final Jam, and that she had lost everything that she had worked to establish during her time here.

None of it mattered. Nothing mattered, except that Nate had to keep on smiling.

As she stared at his smile, he leaned down and kissed her ever so lightly on the lips, testing her reaction. For the first second of the kiss, she was motionless, her eyes open in shock and surprise. But she closed them and looped her arm slowly around his neck, holding his face closer to hers.

And she would find later on, Nate liked it better when she smiled too.


End file.
